Splitting Asperula (Rubiaceae): a proposal for consistency purposes within sections Cynanchicae, Thliphthisa and Hexaphylla

Abstract

Authors report 139 new nomenclatural combinations in the sections Cynanchicae, Thliphthisa and Hexaphylla of the genus Asperula L. (Rubiaceae). These changes were deemed necessary as a consequence of numerous molecular phylogenetic studies which have provided abundant evidence on the polyphyletic nature of the genus. As the complete species-level phylogeny of the tribe Rubieae, and especially, of the genus Galium L. is not available as yet, the authors preferred to instigate changes only in the sections of Asperula whose phylogenetic position is deemed stable.

Keywords:

• Cynanchica
• molecular phylogenetics
• monophyly
• Rubieae
• Sherardia

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Fabrizio Bartolucci (Barisciano), Duilio Iamonico (Rome) and L. Peruzzi (Pisa) for their precious suggestions, and Roberto De Lucia (Naples), who confirmed, with his learned opinion, our suspicions on the etymology of Thliphthisa and helped to clarify that of Cynanchica. We are greatly indebted to John McNeill (Edinburgh) for reading and commenting a very advanced draft of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the “Progetto di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale” (PRIN) “PLAN.T.S. 2.0 - towards a renaissance of PLANt Taxonomy and Systematics” (grant number 2017JW4HZK).